BPMN

On this page you will learn what the BPMN is.

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is a graphical representation for specifying business processes in a business process model. BPMN was developed by Business Process Management Inititaive. The objective of BPMN is to support business process management for both technical users and business users by providing a notation that is intuitive to business users yet able to represent complex process semantics.

The current version of BPMN is 2.0

Elements

The four basic categories of elements are as follows:

• Flow Objects: Events,Activities,Gateways
• Connecting Objects:Sequence Flow,Message Flow,Association
• Swimlanes:Pool,Lane
• Artifacts (Artefacts): Data Object,Group,Annotation

Gateways

A Gateway is represented with a diamond shape and will determine forking and merging of paths depending on the conditions expressed.

Events

In BPMN,there are three types of events:

• Start event - acts as a trigger for the process;indicated by a single narrow border;and can only be Catch,so is shown with an open (outline) icon.
• Intermediate event -represents something that happens between the start and end events;is indicated by a tramline border;and can Throw or Catch (using solid or open icons as appropriate) –for example,a task could flow to an event that throws a message across to another pool and a subsequent event waits to catch the response before continuing.
• End event –represents the result of a process;indicated by a single thick or bold border;and can only Throw,so is shown with a solid icon.

Events are also classified as :

• Catching –they might catch an incoming message to start the process.
• Throwing –they might throw a message at the end of the process.

Workflow Patterns

Worflow Patterns describe the behavior of business processes. The patterns range from very simple to very complex and cover the behaviors that can be captured within most business process models.

• WP1:Sequence
• WP2:Parallel Split
• WP3:Synchronization
• WP4:Exclusive Choice
• WP5:Simple Merge
• WP6:Multi-Choice
• WP7:Multiple Merge
• WP8:Discriminator
• WP9:N out M Join
• WP10:Synchronizing Merge
• WP11:Arbitrary Cycles
• WP12:Implicit Termination
• WP13 to 16:Multiple Instances
• WP17:Deferred Choice
• WP18:Interleaved Routing
• WP19:Milestone
• WP20:Cancel Activity
• WP21:Cancel Case

Basic Patterns

The first five patterns are fairly simple examples of process behavior. They define the basic modeling patterns
of business processes.

WP1 –Sequence

The Sequence pattern is defined as being an ordered series of activities,with one activity starting after a
previous activity has completed.

WP2- Parallel Split

The Parallel Split pattern is defined as being a mechanism that will allow activities to be performed concurrently,
rather than serially. A single path through the process is split into two or more paths so that
two or more activities will start at the same time.

WP3- Synchronization

The Synchronization pattern combines the paths that were generated by a Parallel Split pattern. The final
set of activities within the flows must be completed before the process can continue. This is the “synchronization”
of the parallel paths.

WP4- Exclusive Choice

The Exclusive Choice pattern is defined as being a location in a process where the flow is “split” into two
or more exclusive alternative paths. The pattern is exclusive in that only one of the alternative paths may
be chosen for the process to continue.

WP5 –Simple Merge

The Simple Merge pattern is defined as being a location in a process where a set of alternative paths is
joined into a single path.

Questions

• What is the BPMN?
• What is the workflow pattern?
• What workflow patterns do you know?

If you do not know the answer to these questions,read again the above content.